Developing and Deploying the DNA Patent Database

This 2-part project will enhance the usefulness of the existing DNA Patent Database and perform a pilot study of the licensing practices and policies of academic institutions. Specifically, it will:
-apply the current strategy for identifying DNA-based patents to the domestic USPTO database for patent APPLICATIONS;
-analyze the extent to which inventors have properly acknowledged federal funding in published U.S. patents, using the set of DNA-based patents published between 1980 and 1993 as the basis for the initial analysis;
-compare, for both the public and private sector, the disclosure of sequence information in published patents with sequence information that was already int he public domain on the publication date because of prior disclosure in federal databases like GenBank;
-explore the feasibility of expanding the current scope of the DNA Patent Database to include DNA-based patents granted in Europe and Japan in a follow-up research project;
-explore the feasibility of conducting a survey, in a follow-up research project of patenting and licensing policies among pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and
-maintain and update the existing patent database.
The second part of this project, the pilot study of licensing practices and policies, has been further enhanced by the funding of R03 HG200863, 'DNA Patent Policies at Academic Institutions.' This has allowed for a doubling of the sample size from 12 to 24 institutions, a doubling of the case studies from 5 to 10, a strengthening of the power of the analysis of the data, and further refinements in the identification and analysis of DNA-based patents. (co-funded with DOE)